National Public Service Portal to save $185 million a year for Vietnam

The National Public Service Portal will take a wide range of administration services online

This estimate was released by Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung at a press conference on December 7 to introduce the portal which is scheduled to be launched today (December 9).

Dung said that the prime minister will chair the launch of the National Public Service Portal, which is an important milestone in the implementation of the people- and enterprise-centred approach.

Ngo Hai Phan, director general of the Government Office’s Administrative Procedure Control Department, said that the portal is a crucial part of e-government development, serving as a platform to connect the government with the people and businesses.

The portal consists of six components, namely the national database on administrative procedures and the frequently asked questions and answers related to the procedures, on-time login and verification system to connect with ministerial and provincial-level public service portals, e-payment system, opinion section for citizens and enterprises, integrated public services of ministries, agencies, and localities, as well as online supporting services.

At a single address, people and enterprises can log in to all public services at ministry and provincial level to carry out public administration procedures, monitor the settlement of procedures lodged, assess the quality of administrative settlement, and send feedback.

The national public service portal will help improve the openness and transparency of information relevant to administrative procedures as well as the accountability of state agencies. The portal is estimated to help the state to save VND4.222 trillion ($183.5 million) per year, and the figure will continue to rise with more public services integrated into the portal, according to Phan.

He also said the portal will help reduce scattered investment by ministries, agencies, and localities and spur the process of administrative reforms in Vietnam. The portal will offer five online public services at all 63 provinces and cities: the issuance of driving licenses, announcement of promotion activities, reissuance of health insurance cards, provision of electricity services to citizens/enterprises, and payment of electricity bills.

Moreover, the portal also will provide four ministerial-level public services like issuing international driving licenses, registration for promotion activities, grant of certificates of origin of goods, and e-tax payment for businesses.

In the first quarter of 2020, 15 more public services will be integrated into the national portal, focusing on tax, customs, business registration, health, labour, birth registration, security transactions, and collection of fines for road traffic violations.